An exhaustive study by the Global Times newspaper shows the most dangerous period for a corrupt official is between 6 p.m. and 6:15 pm. That’s when the nation’s top antigraft watchdog shows its hand and announces which of the tigers it has decided to pounce on. Read More »

Beijing’s announcement late Friday night that powerful former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang had been dismissed from the Communist Party and arrested on criminal charges was in one sense unsurprising.

Over the past year, the party has systematically dismantled Zhou’s former political network, with investigators pursuing even distant relatives of Zhou’s overseas. And with the formal public announcement in late July that Zhou was being probed for committing “serious disciplinary violations,” there were multiple signs that Zhou was about to be formally charged with wrongdoing and placed on trial.

But what is surprising is the awkward way Beijing handled both the announcement of Zhou’s expulsion, and official explanations of the decision to banish him. Read More »

China’s Communist Party vowed to address public frustration with the country’s legal system by making it more independent and professional, even as leaders reasserted their dominance over the courts. Read More »

The dragnet around former security chief Zhou Yongkang, a scenario playing out around officials all over China, indicates a wider political purpose in President Xi Jinping’s anticorruption campaign, writes Andrew Browne. Read More »

The Chinese Communist Party’s long-running anti-corruption crusade appeared to have reached its apex with the announcement this week that former security czar Zhou Yongkang is under formal investigation. Of all the powerful “tigers” Chinese President Xi Jinping might have targeted in the campaign, few are bigger or fiercer than Zhou, whose web of connections spreads throughout the country’s immensely well-funded oil and security industries.

Expert Insight

New rules on labor negotiations in southern China offer a potential solution to the country's growing problem with labor unrest while at the same time illustrating the difficulty the Communist Party faces in effectively addressing workers’ grievances.

For much of the last half-century, changing China through economic reform seemed to make far better sense than transforming the country through political revolution. Xi Jinping is trying to flip that on its head.

About China Real Time Report

China Real Time Report is a vital resource for an expanding global community trying to keep up with a country changing minute by minute. The site offers quick insight and sharp analysis from the wide network of Dow Jones reporters across Greater China, including Dow Jones Newswires’ specialists and The Wall Street Journal’s award-winning team. It also draws on the insights of commentators close to the hot topic of the day in law, policy, economics and culture. Its editors can be reached at chinarealtime@wsj.com.